Figure with Meat belongs to a large series of works that Francis Bacon based on reproductions of Diego Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X (1650; Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome). In this version, Bacon depicted the Pope flanked by sides of beef, a motif drawn from his childhood fascination with butcher shops, as well as the haunting images of raw meat made by Rembrandt and Chaim Soutine. Influenced by postwar Existentialist thought, Bacon intended his paintings to remind viewers that the human condition is fragile—that, as he explained, “we are potential carcasses.” To heighten the sense of isolation he explored in his work, Bacon preferred to glaze his paintings with glass, which he believed would function as a barrier between the picture and the viewer and further the sense of distance and remoteness in his work.

Montreal, Expo 67, “Man and His World, International Fine Arts Exhibition,” April 28–October 27, 1967, organized by the National Gallery of Canada, cat. 123 (ill.), as “Figure with Meat (Head Surrounded by Sides of Beef).”

Des Moines Art Center, “Art in Western Europe: The Postwar Years, 1945–1955,” September 19–October 29, 1978, cat. 4 (ill.), as “Head Surrounded by Sides of Beef (Study After Velázquez).”